80 THE MORGAN HORSE. 



About 52 years ago Black Hawk won a race by trotting 

 five miles in fifteen minutes, and in 1843 he won a race of two 

 miles with ease in 5.43 and single mile heats in about 2.40. 



" In 1853, his daughter, Black Hawk Maid, won a race of 

 two mile heats in 5.23, in 1861 his son, Lancet, made a record 

 of 2.27J. Lady Sutton, by Morgan Eagle, won. a mile race in 

 5.17. Beppo, by Gifford Morgan, won a race in 2.31J, and 

 Pizarro, by Morgan Caesar, also won a race in 2.35." 



I mention these few instances of old-time fast trotting of 

 Morgan horses, not to call the attention of my readers to their 

 records as being fast as compared to the best records of the 

 present day, but merely to show that the Morgans of " ye 

 olden tyme " were possessed of some speed at the trot ; and now, 

 when we compare those records with the best of the present 

 day, considering all the contingencies of the case, those old- 

 time Morgan trotters, with but little development and minus, 

 track advantages and speed-producing vehicles and appliances 

 of our time, were not so far behind the modern trotter as 

 would seem at the first glance at the records. 



The Morgans are our oldest trotting family, and if they 

 have not produced our very fastest trotters, their produce de- 

 serves to stand at the very head of all, as good tempered, hardy, 

 and pleasant roadsters. 



Of all the Morgan horses ever bred perhaps no individual 

 among them has attracted the attention of the American peo- 

 ple equal to Ethan Allen eighteen years before the public as a 

 show horse and a trotter. His great race with Dexter in 1867, 

 June 21st, and which crowned him as King of the Morgans, is. 

 still remembered by many. 



This horse was finally purchased by the Messrs. Sprague 

 and Aikers for stock purposes, and died on their Kansas stock 

 farm in 1876, aged twenty-seven years. 



The following soliloquy from the "American Horse 

 Breeder" may not be out of place here, as the 



